Toe inspection foot garment



July'8,vl969 H. KNoHL ETAL.

` 'ros INSPECTION Foo'r GABMENT Filed 5.730. 19s? United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 66--185 11 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE This invention is concerned with foot garments permitting toe inspection and treatment without removal of the garment, the visible upper foot section presenting a substantially normal appearance when the toes are covered but hinging back to cause the toes to protrude through an aperture in the garment sole.

This invention is concerned with foot inspection and treatment stockings which permit exposure of the toes and other portions of the `foot without removal of the garment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is well known that certain stockings are available with open toes or heels or both, and that such stockings are very convenient for inspection or treatment of those portions of the foot not covered. The disadvantages of such stockings become apparent, however, whenever it is desirable to cover the foot after treatment or inspection. In such situations the usual procedure is to use a covering sock. While this procedure is effective, it is neither attractive nor comfortable since part of the foot is covered by both the stocking and the sock, resulting in bulkiness and undesirable retention of body heat. This is particularly true for bed patients.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the object of this invention to provide a stocking comprising a substantially normal covering for the toes when that is desired but so constructed as to permit ready exposure of the toes without removing the garment.

The object of the invention is substantially obtained by providing a stocking with an opening or slit under the sole of the foot so that the toe of the stocking may be stretched and pulled over the toes permitting them to protrude through the opening.

In general, any of the usual knitted foot garments such as socks, below the knee stockings, above the knee stockings, full length stockings, and panty hose may be prepared in accordance with this invention. The stocking is very useful in the treatment of athletes foot, corns, hang nails, and the like. It is also useful where elastic stockings are prescribed for bed patients and ambulatory patients prior to and immediately following surgery.

In knitting the foot garments of this invention where reciprocation of the needle cylinder is possible and assuming knitting proceeds from the top to the toe, the garment is knitted in the usual manner to the point where about 3/8 to Mi of the toe fabric has been knitted. At this point, a pocket is knitted in the usual reciprocation manner with toe fabric yarns except that the needles normally withheld in knitting the yheel pocket are used to produce the toe pocket and the needles used in knitting the heel pocket are withheld. A pocket on the opposite side of the foot results. After the needles are all reintroduced, about 1/2 of straight tubular elastic fabric is knitted. This elastic fabric may be made by any of the well known techniques and preferably is made with a covered elastic yarn. This elastic fabric is later formed into a narrow elastic welt by stitching or overedging around the toe opening.

When the fabric is produced on a multifeed tube stocking machine Iwithout reciprocating means, the garment is knitted circularly as usual with an open elongated toe of the usual toe fabric about 5" in length. A welt is then formed around the tube opening by stitching, looping or overedging. The toe fabric is then split longitudinally, with about 1A of toe fabric unsplit, into top and bottom halves. The bottom half of the flat fabric has a welt made by stitching or overedging so that the turned edge of the welt will fall about at the base of the large toe. Any excess material is cut away during the welt forming process. The top half of the toe fabric is then folded under until the welt edges of the bottomand top halves abut. The tapered rounded side edges of the toe made by the overedging machine are combined with the fold of the top half to form the toe pocket. Obviously, the overedging may extend around the front of the toes `as well.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE l represents a typical stocking of the invention 10 with a boot 11, a turned welt 12, a reciprocated heel 13, a toe 14, an opening 15, and a foot 16.

FIGURE 2 illustrates an enlarged portion of the toe of FIGURE l showing the opening I15 with elastic fabric 17 surrounding the opening, the elastic fabric being formed into a turned welt 19 which is closed by overedging 18.

FIGURE 3 illustrates a foot 28 of a stocking 20 made with tubular knit heel 21, a shaped, cut and sewn toe 22, with fold 29 and overedging 24 and 24a forming the toe edges and with a slit like opening 25 separating the welt edge 26 of the folded-over top 231 and the welt edge 27 of the bottom 23a.

FIGURE 4 demonstrates the steps in producing the toe of FIGURE 3. The fabric is knitted as indicated by the construction lines a, b and c and the welt 26 is made. Thereafter, the toe is slit along the lines b `and c to leave about 1A unslit toe fabric. The welt 27 is then formed so that its edge falls about at the base of the large toe, the excess bottom fabric being discarded. The top -fabric 23 which already has the welt 2.6 is folded along the fold 29 until the welts 26 and 27 are substantially abutting, forming the opening 2S. The ioveredger is then used to simultaneously form seams 24 and 24a and cut off the excess.

FIGURE 5 illustrates the inside of a stocking fabric 30 typical of that of garments of the invention. An elastomeric yarn 32 is inlaid in every third course of substantially non-elastic nylon or other textile yarn 31 such as cotton, rayon, polyolen, polyester, or the like. The elastomeric yarn is one of those commonly used for such purposes, with spandex being the preferred yarn which may be used either covered, bare, or plated with a nonelastomeric textile yarn. Other elastomeric y-arns including rubber yarns may be used, however. Obviously, the elastomer may be incorporated in every course or in every other course, or less often than in every third course.

FIGURE 6 illustrates the inside of another typical fabric useful in the invention. This particular fabric 35 includes courses of yknitted stitches of covered elastomeric yarn 36, the core 37 being covered with` a double covering of nylon yarns 38. The elastomeric yarn courses may be replaced in part by one or more interposed courses of nylon or other textile yarns.

FIGURE 7 illustrates the outside of another typical fabric useful in the garments of the invention, The illustrated modified jersey fabric 40 includes two courses of jersey stitches of textile yarns such as nylon and the like and one course of elastomeric yarn 42 knitted into a jersey knit and float course. Obviously, the spacing may be varied.

The invention is also useful when the boot is made of ordinary textile yarns and the elastic fabric is incorporated only in the toe fabric, but the preferred garments have the boot and foot as well as the toe of elastic fabric.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Example 1 Using a typical two feed hosiery machine equipped to make reciprocated heels and toes, such as a Scott & Williams KN type machine, and using typical streetwear stocking yarns such as 40 denier multiilament nylon yarns in the welt and afterwelt, 15 denier monoiilament nylon yarns in the boot and 40 denier multiilament heel and toe yarns except for the elastic yarn introduced to form the welt 17 around the toe opening shown in FIGURE 2, a streetwear stocking similar to that illustrated in FIGURE 1 was kntitted. The stocking was knitted in the usual manner to the point where the reciprocated toe was finished. At that point one of the toe yarns was replaced by an elasomeric yarn of 40 denier spandex covered with a 30 denier 26 filament single nylon covering of the 'type illustrated in Patent No. 3,301,018. This elastomeric yarn must be kept under tension and should be fed to the machine -by a metering device. The yarn furnishing device used in producing this example was of the type illustrated in the James T. Cargill U.S. Patent No. 3,209,558. The machine was set to inlay the elastomeric yarn by well known methods using one of the two feeds to inlay the fabric. The fabric produced in the form of a straight tubular one half inch fabric resembled that illustrated in FIGURE except that the inlaid yarn 32 appears in every course of nylon knitted stitches 31. A fabric of the type knitted is illustrated in FIGURE 3 of U.S. Patent No. 3,301,018 above referred to. After the one half inch tube of elastic fabric was completed, the stocking was taken from the machine and was overedged to form a welt 19 shown with the overedging 18 in FIG- URE 2. The toe opening could -be comfortably walked upon and the toe fabric could be stretched over the wearers toes with ease.

Example 2 Using the same yarns and same machine as in Example 1, a support stocking was made in which the boot and foot were made of the same fabric as the 1/2 inch toe tube fabric of Example 1, that is the knitted stitches were of nylon and the inlaid yarns were the same as those in Example 1 but were incorporated in the entire boot and foot except the heel and the turned portion of the toe. The opening was made in the same way as in Example 1. The stocking was very comfortable when worn and permitted ready access to the toes.

Example 3 Using the same yarns as in Example 2 and the same machine, a support stocking using the well known knit and iioat principle was knitted. The welt and afterwelt were completed in the usual manner, but in the boot the nylon was knitted in courses of jersey stitches while at the other feed the elastomeric yarn of Example 2 was knitted on alternate needles and floated between to produce a course of jersey stitches and iioats. The fabric produced was the well known two feed fabric widely used in elastic support stockings. The heel was reciprocated in the usual manner using heel yarns, and the toe was also reciprocated using toe yarns. The opening in the toe was then finished in the same manner as in Example 1. The stocking was very similar to that knitted in Example 2 in function except that there was more vertical stretch in the boot portion.

Example 4 Using a typical four feed tubular machine such as the Singer Fidelity LBMF model and using the same type yarns as in Example 1 except in the heel in which boot yarns were used, a typical tubular streetwear stocking of the invention was knitted. The stocking was knitted in the usual manner except the toe was knitted about tive inches in length. After the stocking was removed from the machine, a Welt was made by overedging about the open toe. The toe was then split as previously explained and the method illustrated in FIGURE 4 was used to produce tubular streetwear stockings with an opening in the foot. Boarding formed the foot into its finished state with a narrow slit across the sole. The stocking was quite comfortable when worn and the toes could readily be exposed by pulling the toe pocket out and over the toes which protruded through the opening formed by the slit.

Example 5 Using the machine of Example 4 and the same yarns with the exception that one of the four nylon boot yarns was replaced by an elastomeric yarn similar to that used in Example 2, a tubular knit and float type stocking was produced. The Welt and afterwelt were made in the usual manner, but when the boot was begun, three knitting stations knitted nylon jersey courses while the fourth knitting station knitted elastomeric yarn on alternate needles with the yarn floated between. The boot fabric resembled that illustrated in FIGURE 7, except that an additional course of nylon yarn jersey stitches separated the elastomeric knit and float courses. The heel sector was knitted in every Wale so that the elastomeric yarn was incorporated across the instep in knit and float construction but in the heel the intermediate needles also knitted. The remainder of the stocking foot was finished in the usual manner with fabric similar to boot fabric to the toe and with toe yarns thereafter. The toe was finished as in Example 4. After boarding, the heel had somewhat better `shaping and somewhat better tit than the stocking of Example 4. The toe fabric could be readily hinged back over the Itop of the foot to expose the toes.

Throughout the examples with reciprocated heels and toes inlaid elastomeric yarns are used in the fabric around the toe opening. This is the preferred construction, but obviously other elastic fabrics such as that of FIGURE 6 or FIGURE 7 may be used if desired.

We claim:

1. A foot covering garment including at least a knitted foot portion normally covering the tops and ends of the toes, a welt of doubled stretchable elastic fabric incorporating elastomeric yarn and defining an opening normally in that portion of said garment underlying the base of the toes, the elastic nature of said welt permitting stretching said opening from its normal position over the ends of the toes whereby the latter protrude through the opening.

2. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein an elastomeric yarn occurs in knitted stitches of the welt fabric.

3. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein an elastomeric yarn is incorporated in the welt as a knitted yarn in a knit and float course of stitches.

4. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein an elastomeric yarn is incorporated in the welt as an inlay yarn in a knitted textile yarn course of jersey stitches.

5. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the heel comprises a series of reversed partial courses.

6. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the heel comprises a portion of tubular surface formed of spiral courses of stitches.

7. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the garment is a stocking.

The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the garment is a stocking whose boot includes elastomeric yarn.

9. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the shaped toe has cut edges joined by stitches.

10. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the opening `comprises a slit between two abutting welts retained in position by side stitches.

11. The foot covering garment of claim 1 wherein the opening is bordered by a circular welt.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 2,013,396 9/1935 Adamson 66-172 2,176,968 10/ 1939 Hinchiff et al. 66--172 2,192,844 10/1938 Brill 66-185 2,229,790 1/1941 Beuter et al. 66--186 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 545,153 5/ 1942 Great Britain. 897,967 6/ 1962 Great Britain.

U.S. C1. X.R. 

